View Single Post
Old 06-18-2019, 02:26 PM   #7
kchace
Guru
 
kchace's Avatar
 
City: Brookline, NH
Vessel Name: Shalloway
Vessel Model: Defever 44, twin Perkins
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 2,260
Quote:
Originally Posted by AZ2Loop View Post
Among a thousand other projects, while our boat is out of the water I was planning on pulling the props off to do a general inspection/cleaning/etc. to get familiar with how they come off and go on. Our previous boats were stern drives, so this is new to me. In passing, a guy at the yard commented on the unusual prop nuts on our trawler. I don't know if these are unusual or not, but his comment made me wonder. Before I start pulling these apart, is this an unusual setup? Am I tearing into/pulling apart anything that might be difficult to get back together? Here is a picture of one of our props. They are 24" props, and I do not yet know the pitch. Boat is a 1990 49' Albin with twin 250 Cummins 6BTA's, 2" shafts, Velvet Drive transmissions. In our short sea time so far there are no known issues or vibrations with the props. I just like to pull things apart, clean up, and get familiar with how they go together for peace of mind. It seems like a good time to get familiar with this "business end" of our new (to us) boat. I would think this is a wise move to inspect now and gain an understanding of how this goes together vs learning under less than ideal circumstances while in the water. Am I just opening a can of worms? Seems like it should be simple.... but I am open to advice. Thanks for any thoughts.

As has been stated, you WILL need a prop puller. Unlike stern drives, props on shafts like this are installed on tapers which make the props fit the shafts very tightly. So the prop will not slide off when you take off the nut - if it does, you have a serious problem. You can borrow, buy or make a prop puller.

Below is a picture of the prop puller I made. They are easy to make and work great.


edit - I would not pull the props off for no reason. With the right tools they are easy enough to remove, but re-installing them requires proper cleaning of the tapers, keys and keyways involved.


I WOULD make and install proper lock washers onto the center lock nuts.


Ken
Attached Thumbnails
007.jpg  
kchace is offline   Reply With Quote